Nintendo posted an impressive six-month earnings on Tuesday, thanks in no small part to the company’s Switch console.
During the six-month period ended September 30, Nintendo’s sales were up 4% year-over-year to 388.9 billion yen ($3.4 billion). The company grew its profit during the period by 25.4% to 64.6 billion yen ($572 million).
In its earnings release, Nintendo suggested its Switch console was a main driver of its successful period. The company said that it sold 5.07 million Switch consoles in the six months ended September 30, up 3.7% compared to Switch sales in the same period in 2017. Nintendo’s earnings were also bolstered by strong sales for Mario Tennis Aces and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which tallied 2.2 million and 1.7 million unit sales, respectively.
Nintendo has been posting strong earnings since it released its Switch at the beginning of last year. The console’s main attraction is the ability to use it both at home and on the go. When users want to play the Switch on the television, they can insert it into a dock that’s attached to the set. When they want to go mobile, they can simply use the device’s screen as their monitor and attach controllers to either side of the unit.
That flexibility, coupled with popular games like Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Tennis Aces that are exclusive to the console, have only bolstered sales. And looking ahead, Nintendo expects similarly strong performance.
Nintendo said in its earnings that it anticipates strong sales through March and for its fiscal year ending March 31 to post revenue of 1.2 trillion yen ($10.6 billion), a 13.7% jump over the prior period. The company also anticipates generating a 165 billion yen ($1.5 billion) profit.
